BUSINESS P R O F I L E
TRACY & STEVE
Tomkovicz Bowl Incline
By Kayla Anderson On a midday Friday afternoon, the two giant bowling pins in a 4-10 split line the entrance of Bowl Incline. Inside, the Ohana Diner (featuring a menu designed by renowned chef Sam Choy) serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner in front of bowling lanes that are bright and welcoming, everything outfitted in a modern retro motif. Flat screen LED TVs throughout the alley show the latest sports games and are perfect screens, meaning it’s the best resolution you will find. One room has three pool tables, another has an arcade with crane machines, basketball hoops, and floor-toceiling PAC-MAN. Outside on the main floor is another open-air bar, an enclosed patio with community-engraved pavers, with bocce ball and cornhole. The newly retrofitted Bowl Incline also has a second floor now holding another bar, original quality Henry Miller tables imported from England, and two axe-throwing lanes. Saddling up to the bar, the amicable bartender says that the most popular cocktails are the Sour Strike, “it’s like a flavored vapor”, and any of the Ballers are good as well as the Double Wood margarita because of the Li Hing Mui salted rim. While talking about the drinks, owner Steve Tomkovicz warmly greets me and gives me a tour. The Tomkoviczes have had a house in Incline Village for 12 years, moving here full time during the pandemic from the Bay Area. “The restrictions weren’t as bad here; we could take walks on the golf course,” he says. He and his wife Tracy rebuilt Bowl Incline, gutting the interior, tearing off the roof, getting new bowling equipment, furniture, and basically modernizing the space. The only thing they kept was the name. Steve launched his first business when he was 10 years old, selling flowers on freeway offramps in East LA to support his mom. He went to colleges on football and rugby scholarships, always working three jobs. In 1983 he started an industrial supply company, and it took off; he had 350 employees and 10 locations across the country, doing $240 million in sales. Then four years ago, his doctor told him that he had an enlarged aorta that could rupture at any time. Knowing that his life could be cut short at any moment, Steve reevaluated his priorities and thus
sold his company to move to Lake Tahoe. However, Tomkovicz isn’t the kind of man to sit around and wait for his heart to burst. He has been a hard worker his entire life and loves to be involved in his community and build teams. When his family moved to Incline, he saw a “For Sale” sign in front of Bowl Incline and decided that this would be his new passion project (although he admits that he’s still sad that he sold the industrial supply company that he built out of a pickup truck). He emphasizes that money is not the driver in this venture, that he wants to provide a place for families and friends to go to disconnect from technology and connect with each other. “We need to change how we de-stress, how we connect,” he says.
bowl incline LIVE.WORK.PLAY.
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HOLIDAY 2022
